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It’s been a dark way back for Sean Gadd. Known for being the one-time badboy of Grouplove, Gadd has returned clear headed and ready to take back over the world one step at a time. Now, a bit of a lyrical preacher, spreading peace and love, he is getting ready to fill the rest of us in on where he’s been. His forthcoming album, The Dark Way Back, is an intimate and visceral look into the end of the beginning of his journey.

Originally from London, Gadd moved to Los Angeles where he co-founded the band Grouplove with Christian Zucconi and Hannha Hooper in 2009. Once described by BuzzBands as the “group’s Svengali,” he quickly became a recognizable character with his trademark hat, beard and accompanying British swagger. He played a pivotal role in the writing of band’s biggest hits such as their Number One selling single, “Tongue Tied” and others, including “Colours,” “Ways To Go,” and ‘Itchin on a Photograph.”

Known for his wild onstage persona and often wilder offstage antics, it came as no surprise to many in 2014 when he too to Twitter and confessed on that he was leaving the band due to an ongoing battle with alcohol and drug addiction. The next year saw Gadd go from detox center to rehabilitation center. “It was bleak, I had lost all direction. I was completely empty,” said Gadd speaking of the months that followed his departure. “It felt that everything I’d worked for my whole life was gone overnight.” However sometimes you have to lose everything to find out who you really are. “In a way, for me it actually became the most enlightening time of my life. I had to find out who I was without all the things that came with being in a successful band. I’d lost friends. I’d lost my band. My record deal was gone. Who was I now?”

In the year that followed Gadd embarking on his road to recovery he would find himself going back to the one thing that was always there for him. “It was time to get back to basics,” he said, “It was time to tell my story and doin’ it how I knew best...” Picking up an acoustic guitar, he began to write what would become his forthcoming debut solo album, aptly titled The Dark Way Back. “This is the album I’ve always wanted make, I just didn’t realize the mayhem and madness I’d have to go through to get there.” says Gadd.

The songs on this album are notably more dark and melancholy than their Grouplove counterparts; “Many aspects of this album may seem to be dark, but to me this is about survival and moving forward. It’s really a positive thing,” he noted. Featuring the standout tracks “Runnin My Mau Mau” and “Radar Sounds” the twelve song album has cameos from the Grouplove family, and many other Los Angeles players, throughout. “Having them on the album was important to me. They are a part of the story and will always be family to me,” Gadd says of the featured players.

Coming up two years sober, Gadd is a true “comeback kid,” as raw and genuine a person as you are likely to find. “I don’t mind telling my story, and if it can help others, then that’s a good thing” he noted. And yes it’s definitely a good thing.

BLACKPAW is the solo project of Adrian Rodriguez (The Airborne Toxic Event, Hanni El Khatib, Avid Dancer). While coping with the aftermath of a motorcycle accident in 2013, Rodriguez was bed ridden and unable to do anything but write and play guitar. This stagnancy while in recovery catalyzed a desire to funnel his energy into creating a new sound, and gave way to the project that BLACKPAW is today. His work is the result of with longtime friend and producer George Lewis Jr of Twin Shadow, mixing moody minimalism with the neo-electronic characteristics of modernism.